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Saturday, March 18, 2017

Irish Dance--the mechanics!

by Beppie Harrison
Irish Dance—the mechanics!

So today is St. Patrick’s Day, which is and isn’t a most
appropriate day to talk about what it takes to put Irish dancing together.

As we discussed in last month’s blog, no one can say for
sure how long there has been Irish dancing, but although we assume the ancient
ancestors of the Irish danced. From earliest history all around the world,
people have danced, and since there is very early Irish music, and worldwide
dancing came before music, it is likely that the Irish were dancers from the
beginning.

Of course, whether or not they danced as they do now is
unlikely. For one thing, Irish dancing has been shaped by the experience of the
people in Ireland, just as other countries shaped different kinds of dance
shaped on their experience. What is unique about Irish dancing—and what
captured the attention of the world audience first with the Eurovision Song
Contest demonstration which gave birth to Riverdance and its followers—is that
Irish step dancing is unique in that the dancers have a controlled and rigid
upper body, straight arms and back, and quick intricate steps with the legs and
feet. How this happened has given birth to many a tall tale, but it seems most
likely it came from the reality that neither the Catholic church nor the ruling
British approved of dancing. The church ruled against it on grounds of
immodesty and immorality. The British wanted to stamp out anything that was
distinctive of Ireland, starting with their religion, with the goal of turning
the people into Englishmen and –women, to the extent that was possible.

The reality was that Irish dancing was shaped by traveling
dancing masters, who went from town to town and village to village of Ireland beginning
in the 1750’s and continuing until as late as the 19th century,
earning their pay from people wanting to learn to dance, or to dance better
with more remarkable steps. The space available to the dance master was seldom
very large, and sometimes as small as a tabletop or top of a barrel, which ruled
out sweeping motions or dancing across wide areas. The dancing styles became
very contained, with the feet and legs performing intricate maneuvers while the
arms were held firmly at the sides.

Now, as Irish dance has swept worldwide, although much of the
fascination remains in that very containment, dancers do move more freely than
they were able to do then. In general, there are two types of Irish dance: the
céilí dance, done by as few as 2 dancers, or as many as 16, when the dancers
are dancing in a square, the style probably adopted from the French quadrille.
Or a céilí dance can be danced by an unlimited number of couples in a row, or a
circle. These dances are often fast, and can be very complex, when danced by
experienced dancers.

It’s important to note that a céilí, which is a social
gathering that includes dancing, is not the same as céilí dancing, which is a
specific type of Irish dance.

Irish stepdancing is a performance style, also derived from
tradition. Stepdancing has two main types of dance which vary in the type of
shoe worn. There is soft shoe, in which a shoe made of soft leather like a
ballet shoe is worn, with ties across the foot and up the leg or down the sole.
These dances are done either with black tights or with what are called poodle
socks: white socks that go to the knee and have ribs that keep the ties in
place. Different dance schools have different costumes often using Gaelic
designs, like those taken from the Book of Kells, and these days the dancers
often wear curly wigs the color of their own hair, to give a more old-time
appearance. Soft shoes are als called ghillies. Men wear black leather shoes
with a hard heel with the fiberglass pad, called reel shoes. Even when wearing soft
shoes, men’s dancing features hard heel clicks.

Hard shoes are those worn when the rhythm of the steps is
the important part of the dance. These shoes are worn by both men and women,
with a heel. Originally hard shoes had taps made of metal or leather with metal
nails, but now dancers have fiberglass taps on the toes and heels, both to be
lighter and to make the most of the sound.

Now most Irish dancers take part in the competitions, which
have strict rules. An organized dance competition is called a feis (pronounced fesh), which means “festival” in Irish,
but has come to apply mainly to these competitions. See if you can find one
locally: they are great fun to watch as they move up through the levels, from very
young beginners up to experts who have been dancing for years.

I have a wonderful children's book showing two dancing masters competing to teach dance at a village, moving from the ground to a table top to a chair on the table top and eventually up to a roof and at end on a board laid across the chimney. No wonder all the action and skill is in the feet!

Welcome to Historical Hussies

Welcome to our blog for readers and writers--or anyone, really, who loves history! Donna Hatch, Shannon Donnelly, Cheryl Bolen, Beppie Harrison, Jenna Jaxon, and Katherine Bone are historical romance authors. Very well, we confess; we're historical nerds! We are fascinated with ancient wedding traditions, Irish food, Roman Warfare, Regency Clothing, Scottish swords--you get the idea. Watch our blog for informative tidbits that just might figure in your next manuscript or deepen your appreciation for the next book you read, or even give you some useless trivia to spout at a party when you can't think of a thing to say.We welcome comments and followers, so chime in and enjoy the group!